Top 10 Defining Events Gen Z Lived Through

Millennials are big cordcutters, but most of them still remember the concept of Saturday morning cartoons or channel flipping when they get home after school. Generation Z? Not so much. The eldest among them might have some experience with traditional television, but the vast majority of them are utterly disinterested by the concept – as they are with a lot of traditional media. For big budget content, they by and large lean towards major streaming services like Netflix. According to YPulse, only 18% of Gen Z watches cable TV weekly. Interestingly enough though, it's YouTube rather than Netflix that is the biggest TV replacement for Gen Z. The reason? The content is more niche, diverse, and often interactive.

Drug addiction has been a problem for decades – it’s by no means a new development with Generation Z. That being said, the fentanyl crisis is a new and particularly lethal threat, one which has made drug experimentation far more dangerous than ever before. This generation actually seems, in many ways, more tame than their predecessors; a 2019 study found that they go out less, drink less and do less drugs than generations before them. And yet there’s been a sharp increase increase in the number of teen and young adult overdoses. The culprit? Opioids. It’s an epidemic, one that makes Gen Z far more likely to know someone who has overdosed or died due to opioid drug use.

“The youth is the nation’s future” – it’s a concept that fills people with equal parts hope and dread. For Generation Z, America’s preoccupation with their future took the form of 2001’s No Child Left Behind Act, which was in effect until 2015. The goal was to make elementary and secondary schools more responsible for the academic achievements of their students by tying school funding directly to student performance. It aimed to create equal opportunities for children regardless of their background and privilege – or lack thereof. The result was a more inclusive educational experience for many Gen Z children who may have been otherwise overlooked. Unfortunately, it also often resulted in a very narrow, test-focused approach to teaching.

Most millennials were in high school and university when Facebook unseated MySpace to reshape the way people interact online. While Facebook may continue to feel omnipresent with older demographics, Generation Z was the first to unplug from the social media platform en mass – or skip it altogether – and gravitate towards alternatives. They remain extremely active on Instagram, but also tend towards platforms where their content stays within smaller circles, like Snapchat, perhaps as a reaction to the oversharing done by their parents on Facebook. Social media is a huge part of Gen Z’s life as they’ve truly grown up with it, but as a result, they also tend to engage with it very differently than older generations.

2008's economic downturn meant that, for many Millennials, their job opportunities and buying power were significantly diminished – just as they were entering adulthood and the workforce. But what about Generation Z? They were kids when it happened and so rather than crippling their launch into the adult world, it cast a shadow over their childhood. They didn’t have the American dream pulled out from under them, they grew up amid foreclosures with newly unemployed parents. As a result, Gen Z is a notably frugal one, and because so many lost their homes or had their communities destroyed, they’ve increasingly formed connections over social media. They’re a generation who, raised in a time of uncertainty, are big on value.

Generation Z is voicing their displeasure with the decisions that have been made by the generations before them. Gun violence and mass shootings have become so common over the past two decades that Gen Z has been called “the school shooting generation”. And for many youth, the 2018 Parkland shooting proved was a breaking point. This is a generation shaped by Sandy Hook and post-Columbine safety requirements, and they see current gun legislation as being at the heart of the problem. On March 24th, 2018, they made their voices heard by marching on Washington in a protest over 1 million people strong – and that’s not counting the hundreds of related protests that occurred across America and around the world.

The entertainment industry might be at the heart of this global movement, but it’s been felt across the spectrum of popular culture, the professional sphere and in our personal lives. Never before have we, as a society, had such a large scale conversation about sexual harassment and assault – nor had so many people come forward to talk about their personal experiences. Since the hashtag first went viral in 2017, there’s been a tangible change in the dialogue, with terms like “rape culture” now getting much more attention and discussion. Most importantly, the youngest generation seems to be growing up with a much better concept of consent and seem better equipped to have conversations about sex and power dynamics.

Generation Z sees a world reaching its breaking point. They connect on a national and global scale with one another and, feeling disenfranchised, they seem ready to march for change – be it against gun violence or for green causes. They are politically active, and given the political shake up that they’re living through in the form of President Donald J. Trump, it’s perhaps not so surprising that they’re making their voices heard. Gen Z seemingly distrusts past generations and therefore seek to effect change themselves. Trump’s controversial presidency, which for many has occurred during their formative teenage years, is giving them a lot to consider as they become eligible voters – both as republicans and democrats.

Celebrities don’t have the clout they used to. They're still there, but they aren’t necessarily musicians or actors. And if they are, they aren’t following the teen entertainment roadmap of decades past. With Gen Z, influencers are the new celebrities. According to a 2019 study by research firm Morning Consult, PewDiePie is more popular than LeBron James with Gen Z men, while Shane Dawson beats out the likes of both Serena Williams and Jennifer Aniston with female respondents. The reason? Gen Z feels more connected to influencers than movie stars or athletes – they seek interaction and relatability. They also want to be content creators, not just consumers. And this shift has completely turned the marketing industry on its head.

Social media, the internet and streaming content has fundamentally changed the way that Generation Z consumes information relative to those that came before them. But if there is a single thing that has shaped this generation more than any other, it’s the arrival of the smartphone. Pretty much every surviving generation has embraced this technology, but Gen Z was raised with it in their hands for the better part of their lives. Kids have phones younger than ever, and this generation spends more time on this device than any other. Gen Z is rarely not connected to the internet thanks to smartphone technology, making it their primary tool in most aspects of life, from communication and business to entertainment.